Category Archives: Dental health

Thanksgiving is all about food. Whether you’re snacking or feasting, the menu will probably include multiple helpings of turkey, stuffing, pies, cakes, and other family favorites. Carbohydrate-rich meals and sugary treats are inevitable. Savannah Dental Solutions doesn’t want to spoil your fun, but we’d like to give you some quick tips on taking care of your teeth during the long weekend of football and fun.

The Top 5 Tips for Maintaining Healthy Teeth on Turkey Day
1. Avoid sticky foods. You might remember this from our Halloween blog. Well, the same goes for Thanksgiving. Pecan pie and other gooey relatives can stick to your teeth, get caught in between teeth thereby allowing sugar to hang around longer and increase your chances of causing cavities.
2. Avoid hard foods or using your teeth as a tool. Don’t crack nuts, open bottles, crack popcorn kernels, or try to bite through anything that could crack, chip, or damage your teeth.
3. Try and limit in between meals or snacking. Eating a meal, waiting 30 minutes and brushing is your best approach. Grazing throughout the day adds to the acids in your mouth and can harm your teeth.
4. Balance your eating. Protein and veggies can offset the acids created from created from carbs and sweets.
5. Keep your toothbrush handy. Get a soft to medium bristle travel brush. Brushing 30 minutes after a meal can help decrease your risk for cavities. Rinsing your mouth immediately after eating can help remove food and acids.

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving. Take care of your teeth. You’ll need them for next year’s Thanksgiving feast! If your family keeps the tradition of a backyard football game, consider a mouth guard. Don’t take a chance on losing a tooth. It’ll make turkey time less enjoyable!

Are we the only dentist in Savannah, GA recommending you brush your tongue? Probably not. However, we’ll go ahead and give you the steps again because there are many advantages to brushing your tongue.

The right way? Always brush your tongue from back to front. You can even put some toothpaste or mouthwash on your toothbrush. This recommendation is good for proper adult dentistry and children’s dentistry care. We want to give you simple tips and techniques to keep your smile bright and your breath fresh.

The tip of your tongue is usually self cleaning due to all the movement and friction with swallowing and speaking. This portion of the tongue also comes in contact with the hard palate or roof of your mouth. This friction creates a cleaning action that keeps away build up of bacteria and debris.

The back of the tongue only touches the soft palate and the contact if fairly gentle. There’s not enough friction to keep the bacteria away and build up occurs. This build up of bacteria can cause bad breath and tooth decay.

How can you tell if you have bacteria build up? Stick out your tongue. Do you see a white or brownish film or coating on the back? It usually forms a triangular shape. You’ll need to start as far back as you can. Watch out for your gag reflex… Don’t choke. If you make it a practice to brush or scrape your tongue once a day, the gag reflex will diminish.

Don’t brush or scrape too hard and rinse your mouth when you are done. If you are going to use mouthwash on your brush, look for ones that contain antibacterials chlorine dioxide or cetylpyridinium chloride.

Is sugar bad for your teeth? Good question. This old adage is true and not so true at the same time. The amount of sugar is important but not as important as the frequency of the sugar intake. It’s actually better to chug a 40oz soda than it is to sip 4 oz of soda throughout the day; the same is true with sweets that we eat. (We’re not suggesting you drink a 40 oz soda…) Cavities happen because acid is formed by the bacteria that eat the sugars in our mouth. That acid breaks down the enamel and causes tooth decay. Limiting the sugar is good, but limiting the frequency is even more important.

Another myth or recommendation around Halloween is whether to brush your teeth after you eat all of that candy. Well, brushing after consuming a bunch of candy may actually be a bad thing. This is when our teeth are the softest. All that sugar raises the acidity in the mouth making the teeth most susceptable to abrasion or enamel loss. When the teeth are in a demineralized or softened state, we can actually brush away our enamel. Choose a mouthrinse with fluoride instead. This technique can harden the teeth while in this softened state. Unfortunately, when the enamel is gone, its gone. It won’t grow back. Brushing before drinking or eating food actually puts your mouth in a less acidic state. This keeps your teeth much stronger during those sugar binges that we have during Halloween.

Sticky candies are worse than softer ones. Sticky candy or foods can be bad for existing dental work. They can pull out fillings or crowns. Hard candies can break your natural teeth or dental restorations too. Gooey candy can stick to the teeth for long periods of time in the deepest grooves. Bacteria then eats the sugar that is wedged in the crevaces and hard to reach places for much longer. So stay away from sticky candies.

The Importance of Hygiene Visits (Teeth Cleaning)
We want you to have the brightest smile and the healthiest teeth. One of the most important reasons to visit a dentist is to keep your teeth clean and identify any emergency dental problems you may be experiencing. Having your teeth professionally cleaned can identify dental problems that you may not be aware of. Plaque and tartar can form even with meticulous brushing. When tartar collects below the gumline, gum infection can result and can lead to tooth loss or gum disease.

Research also has proven a link between the advanced stages of gum disease and serious health problems. Diabetes, stroke, and heart disease are just a few of the risks. We recommend regular cleanings by our hygienist to help you keep overall good dental health. In fact, we are currently offering a new patient rate of $99 for a cleaning and full set of x-rays. Click here for our teeth cleaning special.